Mars North Pole Contains Pure Water Ice

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Mar’s north polar cap, Planum Boreum, contains water ice “of a very high degree of purity,” according to a new international study relayed by Universe Today. Independent researchers in France have concluded that radar data from the SHARAD (SHAllow RADar) instrument on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) points to 95-percent pure water in the Mars North Pole.

“The north polar cap is a dome of layered, icy materials, similar to the large ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica, consisting of layered deposits, with mostly ice and a small amount of dust,” the report said, adding that the total volume of ice between the two poles is about 100 times that of the volume of North America’s Great Lakes. Last summer, the Mars Phoenix Lander found direct evidence of water in soil samples as well.

Originally, Mars researchers thought that the poles contained dry ice, which is frozen carbon dioxide. The discovery of pure water ice means that life (at least as we know it) may have existed at one point on the planet. In addition, the water could help sustain a future human Mars base (a la Red Mars) without having to transport millions of tons of life-sustaining water from Earth first. (Via Slashdot)